Re: laws of thermodynamics

As observed, the addition of heat to inorganic situations does not
generally seem to do much in the way of creating increased order. Quite
the contrary. In contrast to that, one of the miracles of living things
is the functionality of storing recoverable energy through conversion
into structure. Higher order creatures in turn depend upon the energy
stored in lower order living (or once-living) energy reservoirs to
sustain them and their activities. Without that basic functionality of
creating reservoirs of potential energy in (new and ordered) structures,
we simply would not exist. Having said that, I guess I cannot completely
rule out a kind of living creature that is animated only when able to
absorb energy through something like natural solar panels - it would be
an interesting come-and-go existence, not unlike the philosophical
ruminations about winking in and out of existence.
JimA

Sheila Wilson wrote:

> Thank you for the reference to the article. I enjoyed it. I might
> also note the case someone else (?) made in this thread that heat
> doesn't necessarily mean increased order. The example given was ice
> melting to water and then becoming steam. Ice, with its crystalline
> habit, is much more ordered than steam.
>
> I greatly appreciate your insight.
>
> Sheila
>
>
> SteamDoc@aol.com wrote:
>
> As a Christian whose professional specialty is chemical
> thermodynamics, I got sufficiently peeved with Christian misuse of
> the Second Law that I wrote a whole essay about the topic several
> years ago:
> http://members.aol.com/steamdoc/writings/thermo.html
>
> Not long ago, somebody asked me about the essay Jim Armstrong
> mentioned finding on christiananswers.net. I think it is a fine
> example of how one can take some true things, some hand-waving
> assertions, and a bit of total B.S. and weave it all together into
> a persuasive presentation that can deceive the the average
> non-expert reader into conclusions that are nonsense. It is sad
> that the word "Christian" is associated with such things.
>
> Allan Harvey, steamdoc@aol.com
>
>
>
> Sheila McGinty Wilson
> sheila-wilson@sbcglobal.net
Received on Wed Jan 5 18:11:41 2005